Retailers typically display pricing information on printed tags attached to store shelves adjacent to corresponding products. In addition to price, such tags often include information such as size, weight, unit price and other identifying information. While tags are sufficient for informing consumers of product prices, they do not facilitate the process of updating displayed prices. This shortcoming is particularly problematic in cases of products with volatile pricing. Prices of such items may fluctuate frequently, such as daily. This means that the printed price tags would have to be replaced daily with corrected tags. In a store with hundreds or thousands of products, this task can be extremely laborious and conducive to error. The problems are compounded in an enterprise with many such stores.
Most modern retail stores implement some form of computer technology in their operations. This typically consists of using point-of-sale (POS) systems for automating checkout procedures. A POS system generally has one or more automated checkout terminals each of which is equipped with a scanner that is capable of sensing and interpreting a printed barcode or other indicia that corresponds to a product identifier, such as Universal Product Code (UPC) or Stock Keeping Unit (SKU). Checkout terminals communicate with a POS database that associates various items of information with each UPC/SKU, including price and inventory information. When a customer is ready to make a purchase, the store clerk uses a scanner to sense the barcode markings on each of the customer's items. The checkout terminal determines the UPC/SKU, obtains the price for each item, and keeps a running total of the purchase.
Changing prices with such systems can be tedious and conducive to error. Two things must occur to effect a change. First, the POS database must be modified to reflect the price change. When this happens, the new price will apply to customer purchases at the checkout terminal. Second, the price tag (i.e., displayed price) for each of the affected items must be changed. If a tag is not replaced or displays an erroneous price, the charged price will not equal the displayed price.
Displaying a correct price is important. Both customer satisfaction and legal compliance necessitate that a displayed price match the price in the POS database. A growing number of states have item-pricing laws that require retailers to display an accurate price on or adjacent to each product. In these states, retailers are subject to governmental inspections and penalties for non-compliance. Legal compliance demands conformance of displayed prices with prices charged at checkout. Customer satisfaction requires accurate pricing clearly displayed on the store shelves.
For an enterprise with a plurality of stores, it is also important to synchronize each store's local POS database with the enterprise's central POS database, so that an applicable pricing change in the central database triggers the same change in each local database. Illustratively, each store in a retail chain may have a local computer system with a local POS database that is communicatively coupled via one or more networks to a remote enterprise server. This allows the database of each store to be modified by changing only the database of the enterprise server.
While electronic price display label (EPL) systems are known in the art, they are quite limited in their adaptability. Such systems are not designed to interface with conventional POS systems. Instead, they require proprietary closed software to enable electronic price display at store shelves. It is desirable to provide an electronic price display module that can readily be interfaced with conventional POS systems.
Another deficiency of known EPL systems is that they are designed for very limited communication and display, to minimize cost and battery consumption. Their displays are often difficult to read and accommodate very limited information. Their batteries require frequent replacement. It is desirable to provide a more robust pricing display unit that optionally provides a rechargeable power supply and/or a convenient external DC power source and is capable of vivid display of operator-selected information, such as advertising messages in continuously scrolling text.
Yet another deficiency with such EPL systems is that they do not communicate with barcode scanners. Inventory tracking typically entails scanning a barcode label at a shelf and entering the number of corresponding items on the shelf into an inventory tracking program. Unfortunately, conventional EPL systems do not display barcodes corresponding to UPC/SKUs. This shortcoming may be due in part to low power displays of EPLs that provide less contrast between a white stripe displayed adjacent to a black stripe than is available for a barcode printed on a black and white label. Low contrast between the elements of a displayed barcode can substantially reduce reliability of the scanning process. Thus, typical EPL systems do not render printed barcode labels unnecessary.
The invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.